---
title: But when it came up to them, the lad just hit it on the head with th… — More English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But when it came up to them, the lad just hit it on the head with the bladder and the dragon fell down dead, but before it died, it bit off the little boy's forefinger. Who acts: good, lad, dragon. A sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 16, with its
---

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# More English Fairy Tales, More English Fairy Tales, part 16, sentence 105

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
But when it came up to them, the lad just hit it on the head with the bladder and the dragon fell down dead, but before it died, it bit off the little boy's forefinger.

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**Who acts:** good, lad, dragon · **What happens:** come up, hit, fall down, die, bite off · **To what, where:** miles, good, head, forefinger

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This is a sentence of «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, part 16. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (good, lad, dragon), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg14241:30:105
# text = But when it came up to them, the lad just hit it on the head with the bladder and the dragon fell down dead, but before it died, it bit off the little boy's forefinger.
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	12	cc	_	_
2	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	4	advmod	_	_
3	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
4	came	come	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	advcl	_	_
5	up	up	ADV	RB	_	4	advmod	_	_
6	to	to	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
7	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	lad	lad	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
11	just	just	ADV	RB	_	12	advmod	_	_
12	hit	hit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	12	obj	_	_
14	on	on	ADP	IN	_	16	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	16	det	_	_
16	head	head	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
17	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
18	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	bladder	bladder	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	_
20	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	23	cc	_	_
21	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
22	dragon	dragon	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	23	nsubj	_	_
23	fell	fall	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
24	down	down	ADV	RB	_	23	advmod	_	_
25	dead	dead	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	23	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	33	punct	_	_
27	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	33	cc	_	_
28	before	before	SCONJ	IN	_	30	mark	_	_
29	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	30	nsubj	_	_
30	died	die	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	advcl	_	SpaceAfter=No
31	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	30	punct	_	_
32	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	33	nsubj	_	_
33	bit	bite	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	conj	_	_
34	off	off	ADP	IN	_	39	case	_	_
35	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	37	det	_	_
36	little	little	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	37	amod	_	_
37	boy	boy	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	39	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
38	's	's	PART	POS	_	37	case	_	_
39	forefinger	forefinger	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
40	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come up** | past | good |  | miles *= mile* |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to they=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **hit** | past | the lad | good |  | the head |  | with the bladder | vn hit-18.1-1 «NP V NP PP.instrument»: agent=Agent it=Patient with bladder=Instrument |
| 3 | **fall down** | past | the dragon |  |  |  |  | dead, down *property* | vn occur-48.3 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 4 | **die** | past | good |  |  |  |  |  | vn calibratable\_cos-45.6.1 «NP.attribute V»: agent=Attribute |
| 5 | **bite off** | past | good | the little boy's forefinger |  |  |  |  | vn swat-18.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent forefinger=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «More English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 14241 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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